News of "News of the World"

 

I've been slightly miffed at Tom Hanks because of the two recent movies of his that were only on Amazon Prime or Apple Plus or HBOhmygosh. I mean...how rude! I got over it, though, when I was able to use a free rental code at Redbox to watch News of the World last night.

Directed by the same guy that did the Bourne trilogy and Captain Phillips, News is the story of a war-weary widower wending his way across Texas reading the news to the plain folks of the plains at ten cents a seat. He ends up accepting the task of taking a girl, who was being raised by the tribe of Native Americans (accurately-for-the-time-period, called Indians) who had killed her parents, to her only known relatives.

Hanks is flawless, as always, but the big news is Helena Zengel, who embodies the young girl with energy and pathos. The relationship between Johanna and Captain Kidd that slowly develops over the course of their travels feels real and redemptive...for both of them.

And the cool thing was watching a couple "making of" special features afterward and learning that not only did the relationship feel real to this audience member, but it WAS real for the actors.

Being a semi-fan of Westerns, News of the World did not disappoint. It had a shootout and a standoff and a runaway buckboard and all the beautiful vistas and campfires a person could ever want.

Both my thumbs are up. Thanks, Redbox!

Books I Read in 2022, Vol. II

 

THE GODSPELL EXPERIENCE: Inside a Transformative Musical
Carol de Giere

Day by day for more than 40 years, the musical Godspell has delighted countless performers and audience members around the world. Here, for the first time, is a comprehensive account of the show's creative journey and how it became a theatrical classic. "Fans of the musical will find a treasure trove of information that is nothing short of inspirational." (Peggy Gordon, composer of "By My Side" and original Godspell cast member)

I have been both an audience member and performer of Godspell (First Presbyterian Theater's 1978 production (Fort Wayne, IN) is where Beloved and I met) and this book both informed me and transported me. The inside stories of its creation and creators really are wonderful. If you have any connection to the musical at all, I invite you to pick up a copy, read it, and then write Carol de Giere a thank you note. Fun fact: I found and purchased this book while doing a little research in preparation for an episode of the podcast, Dewey's Jukebox, that featured the song that I sang when in the show: "We Beseech Thee." You can listen to that podcast episode by CLICKING HERE.

First line: On opening night, May 17, 1971, a curtain could only metaphorically rise on the new Off-Broadway musical, Godspell, playing in New York City's Greenwich Village.

Page 56, Line 5: After a couple of years at Carnegie, she dropped out to work at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco, which she found more fruitful than finishing her B.F.A. degree.

Last line: It will go on transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary, the mundane into the meaningful, for generations to come.

Books I Read in 2022, Vol. I

 

GUERRILLAS OF GRACE: Prayers for the Battle
Ted Loder

An embarrassingly beautiful collection of prayers that compels readers to level with themselves about some of the most intimately delicate areas of human life. To read Loder's writing is to look with penetrating honesty into one's own personality, relationship with God, and need for neighbor. (Dr. William Muehl, Professor Emeritus, Yale University Divinity School)
       [This book] puts into words so much of what [we've] longed to say. It is Loder's creativity, blended with penetrating honesty and unexpected humor, that lifts these prayers out of the ordinary, making them experiences to be savored and shared. (St. Anthony Messenger)

Somewhere in early-to-mid-2020, I started hosting an online time of prayer on Valley Christian Church's private Facebook page. It is structured by using the acronym CHAT, which stands for Confess, Honor, Ask, and Thank. I've been using a selection from this book to either confess to God or honor Him almost every week. These prayers are everything they are said to be in the above quotes...at the very least. I am so grateful to Brad Dewing for gifting me this book. Methinks I may need to track down the other two books of prayer by Loder as well.

First line: Why would anyone call a book of prayers Guerrillas of Grace?

Page 56/Line 5: Release me from the dangerous illusions of independence when the human family summons me to the realities and promises of interdependence among races, sexes, nations.

Last line: In the darkness I see the light and find in it comfort, confidence, cause for celebration, for the darkness cannot overcome it; and I rejoice to nourish it in myself, in other people, in the world for the sake of him in whom it was born and shines forever, even Jesus the Christ.